1. Field
One or more embodiments relate to a switchable autostereoscopic display apparatus and method switchable between two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) modes, and more particularly, to such a 2D/3D switchable autostereoscopic display apparatus and method which may selectively display one of a 2D image and a 3D image using the same two displays with a convertible lens therebetween.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since a three dimensional (3D) image display may be conventionally required to display both a 3D image and a two dimensional (2D) image, a 2D/3D switchable image display technique is desired. Such 2D/3D switchable image display technique may include an autostereoscopy technique with a parallax barrier and lenticular lens, for example.
As such an example, a lenticular lens may be attached to a front side of a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) in a display designed to display 3D images. In this instance, the LCD is a Flat Panel Display (FPD). Light from pixels to be displayed on an LCD may be output to each predetermined location behind a lenticular lens, due to characteristics of the particular lenticular lens. The lenticular lens provides images of different viewpoints, that is, left and right column image information, to left and right eyes of a user, and thereby may provide a 3D effect. Here, a lenticular lens refracts light of an image to left and right viewpoints. Accordingly, a lenticular lens is a desirable component of a 3D image display. However, a 2D image is not displayable when the lenticular lens is attached to the LCD, such as those attached to a front side of the LCD. Accordingly, research has been desirably conducted for a way to selectively display a 2D image and a 3D image while still using a lenticular lens.
A 2D/3D switchable lenticular lens may adjust refractive indexes along the inside and outside of the lens using a Liquid Crystal (LC) to convert a 2D image and a 3D image. It has been desirably found by inventors of the present invention that when refractive indexes along the inside and outside of lens are identical the lenticular lens may not appropriately function as a lens, and thus a 2D image may actually be generated. Conversely, when refractive indexes of an inside and outside of the lens are different, the lenticular lens may operate as conventionally intended, resulting in a 3D image being generated. Here, when refractive indexes are not appropriately adjusted, a quality of 2D and 3D images may also be deteriorated.